The other day I was getting ready to turn onto a state highway, and a sheriff's cruiser was parked off to the side of the road, looking like he was running radar for cars going in my direction. I wasn't concerned about a speed violation, (didn't have enough room to get up to highway speed anyway at that distance) but the few previous encounters with law enforcement haven't been good. I don't mean I've ever been ticketed, just harassed, pulled for a fishing expedition. (like just because I'm driving an old cargo van I'm smuggling drugs or have a rolling meth lab or something.) This has occasionally happened despite the historical plates. They've never found anything, just a time waster. Anyway, I made my turn, fully expecting the possibility of getting hassled again, when as I drove by, he smiled and held his thumb up.

Years ago, me and a friend used to fly R/C aircraft at a very large public park on the far south side of our town.They were fairly large, nitro-methane fueled planes, and although we had the appropriate AMA memberships and such, the park was hardly an approved flying site.During the week there was hardly anyone ever at that park and we were very careful with safety and noise, so we never had any issues in almost 4 years of flying out there.One day though, we were out there flying, and an SUV police cruiser started cutting across the grass and heading towards us.We were like, "Oh, shit! We're getting busted!", so we brought the planes in as fast as we could, and awaited our fate.They pulled up close, so we met them at their cruiser.I asked, "Are we getting busted for flying out here?"The driver said, "Busted? No. We were coming over to see if you guys came out regularly. We'd like to watch you guys fly while we eat our lunch, if that's ok."Shocked, I said, "Yeah, we're out here about 3 times a week, usually Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays... From around 11:00am to 4:00pm."Officer: "Good, maybe we'll see you around then. Are you guys done for today?"Me: "No, we were just bringing them in because we thought you were going to run us off."Officer: "I don't want to run you off. Those planes are the coolest things I've seen in a while. Okay then, we'll let you get back to flying. Have a nice day."Me and my buddy "You too!"

And with that, our flying status at that park was cemented in the fact that if the police wouldn't run us off, we weren't likely to ever have to fly anywhere else.(Until the next year... when the park got a remodel... and most of the flat ground was taken over by a pond and playground equipment)

If this was supposed to be a van related story, never fear...During that time, I toted all of my planes and support equipment around in a '70 VW Westfalia that we called Pokey. LOL